


Live for the Dying

by foxjar



Series: Won't Leave and Let Him Fall Behind [2]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Identity V Fusion, Anal Sex, Bottom Kurusu Akira, Death, Established Relationship, Horror, M/M, Necrophilia, Romance, Shukita Halloween 2020, Top Kitagawa Yusuke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:54:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26846230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxjar/pseuds/foxjar
Summary: Even without a pulse, Akira is still the most beautiful person Yusuke has ever known.
Relationships: Kitagawa Yusuke/Kurusu Akira
Series: Won't Leave and Let Him Fall Behind [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984009
Comments: 5
Kudos: 49
Collections: Shukita Halloween





	Live for the Dying

**Author's Note:**

> Shukita Halloween (day one) prompts: intimacy + dancing.
> 
> Story and series titles are from "Into the Nothing" by Breaking Benjamin.

The sky is sepia-colored, a wash of burnt-out orange swimming across the horizon. The fog creeps along the ground, twisting between Yusuke's feet. His hurried breaths come out in puffs of mist.

Another night of the game is over. It always ends with either sunrise or death, and Yusuke has been lucky enough so far to have seen the sunrise every time.

He hears the creaking before he sees the body, the unmistakable sound of death. When the hunters catch their prey, they string them up in a strange contraption made of metal and rope. The noose is then wrapped around the victim's neck, and after a few agonizing minutes of struggle, the mechanism jerks them back, lifting their bodies off the ground and often snapping their neck in the process.

Although he is no stranger to death, he doesn't wish to see just who is tied up with the rope. And yet he does. The unwinding thing within him comes undone. His fingers are sweaty as he clutches his case.

He thought he had learned so much during his time at the manor. He thought he could help. But, really, he learned nothing. Not enough to save anyone. Not enough to save him.

Yusuke notices the plaid pattern of his pants first. The long sleeves of his school blazer. His head is slumped, the thick rope still around his neck, holding his body up as he sways to and fro. On the ground at his feet are his glasses.

Akira.

Why hadn't Yusuke heard his screams? Yusuke can't remember hearing much the night before. The crunch of leaves beneath his feet, the mud sucking at his shoes, the squawking of the birds. Had there been screams of fear at some point, or had Akira died as he had lived, selfless and alone?

Yusuke wasn't there when Akira needed him, but he's here now. He approaches the corpse with trepidation, his heart thrumming, as if Akira's head might snap up at any moment to accuse him of abandonment.

Akira's body is cold. Yusuke foolishly reaches for his wrist, feeling for the pulse he knows to have subsided long before he arrived. But Akira helped teach him to hope and dream against all odds, to fight even when every ounce of his strength is gone.

For a while, Yusuke just keeps his arms wrapped around Akira's hips. It stops the swaying, and like this, at least he doesn't have to see his face. The light that has vacated his body.

He knew Akira to be nimble on his feet. Had he distracted the hunter long enough to protect the others? It must have been a noble sacrifice; it couldn't have been anything but that.

Yusuke makes his way up the crumbling steps beside Akira so that he can untie the rope around the contraption. If he leans over the rotting rail, he can just barely reach him. His shoulders twinge with pain, sweat dripping down his face.

And then it's done, this unspeakable thing, and even as Yusuke attempts to lunge for Akira, any part of him, his body still falls to the ground with a sickening thud.

Yusuke was unworthy of Akira when he was alive, and he's still unworthy of him even in death. If he lets his vision blur, it's almost as if Akira is merely lying on the grass. He tries not to think about the rope still around his neck, thick and scratchy, or the unnatural way his body crumpled to the ground.

His skin is cold in Yusuke's hand, his body heavy in his arms.

Death always seemed beyond a man like Akira. If their time in the Metaverse taught Yusuke anything, it was that Akira was determined. Unstoppable. And yet here he lies in Yusuke's arms, cold and stiff. The light in his eyes is gone, and his lips no longer hold the warmth they once had.

Yusuke thought he could protect Akira in this game of death and deceit. He had made Akira promise that he'd run.

Even without a pulse, Akira is still the most beautiful person Yusuke has ever known. Not in the way Ann is, but in his spirit. His fire, his determination — in the way he loved Yusuke, through it all.

His skin, ice. His breath, silenced. Yusuke clasps Akira's hand, pulling him up and propping his feet atop his own. Beneath the burning sky, Yusuke leads them in a somber dance — as if the world hasn't ended. As if Akira still draws breath.

Yusuke carefully lies Akira down on the ground, cradling his head, his fingers brushing through soft curls. He slips his fallen glasses back onto his face, like it's all he needs to see again.

Hands tremble as he unbuttons Akira's blazer; unhooks his suspenders; pulls up his turtleneck. Hands splay across his chest, frigid but still beautiful. Always beautiful.

Yusuke isn't thinking about the other survivors anymore. All he's thinking about now is Akira, how he can't help him take off his clothes like he did when he was alive. Their mutual effort in undressing as they're about to make love. Yusuke pulls off his pants, sets them off to the side, and kisses every inch of Akira's skin from his knees to his chest.

His love. His failure.

A string of apologies is upon his lips even once he's inside him for the last time, his hips jerking, shaking. He clutches at Akira's blazer, still hanging off his limp arms, as if he can pull him back from the brink of death. As if a kiss alone could save anyone.

This lifeless caricature will be the last memory Yusuke has of Akira. Even if he had second thoughts, it's too late to stop now. The coldness is already embedded in his bones, the tightness around him, the inability to consent because there's no one left to breathe a reply.

Just Yusuke and a corpse, as beautiful as it remains; as wondrous, its skin a canvas that will forever remain unstained. Yusuke can't help the way his body shudders, filling him, for Akira is just as beautiful now as he was the day they first met.

Yusuke falls over the remains of Akira, his back bent, his soul broken. He weeps against the lips of his beloved, and still the sky burns.

**Author's Note:**

> The way the noose contraption works is based on how survivors in Identity V were incapacitated before the rocket chair.


End file.
